i mean that you’re entitled to your opinion, but the phrasing of “hot young woman fawning over the doctor” makes me feel that you are not able to look past a character’s status as a young woman with feelings for the doctor to see that she is also a fully realized person with a home life, other relationships, specific motivations for wanting to travel, and so on. you don’t have to like those characters or the trope of companions having feelings for the doctor, but reducing them to “hot young women fawning over the doctor” feels pretty dismissive of young women and their feelings/relationships, to be honest.
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Ah. I get it now. I’ll expand to try and explain what I was saying.
As I see it, that trope is a major part of, specifically, Rose and Martha’s character. While they do have some other motivations etc, there is a heavy element of fawning for the Doctor that got very tiresome to me after multiple watches.
It’s fair to say that it may be colouring my perception of them, but that is what it is. I’ve got to the point of just being annoyed with the early series of Revival.
I’m not being dismissive of young women. I just don’t necessarily want to watch it on TV. If others enjoy it, I’m genuinely happy for them.
Hope that explains my point. If you want further claification just let me know.
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I totally get what @ItsR0b0tNinja is trying to say about Rose and Martha because the ‘young woman fawning over the Doctor’ was a major part of their characterisations. It’s constantly cropping up. For example, I just watched The Impossible Planet and there’s a bit where Rose is talking about getting a mortgage with the Doctor.
I don’t think Robot’s being deliberately reductive about Martha or Rose - sometimes we use phraseology online to get our point across which might not be the best chosen but we feel gives a general vibe of what bugs us about something.
I know I use words and phrases which may be a bit too emotive when trying to get my point across quickly and succinctly.
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my top 5 from both classic (only watched s7-12) and modern who is:
- series 10
an absolutely perfect series of tv, no flaws, an incredible way to build the character of the doctor back up after its deconstruction in series 8/9. gave us some absolutely perfect stories (the pilot, smile, thin ice, oxygen, extremis, the pyramid at the end of the world, the lie of the land, world enough and time / the doctor falls, twice upon a time), each examining a different part of the traditional format of the show, bending the rules and norms to both criticise and praise its own premise. gave us the best ever tardis team with bill & nardole joining, gave us some of the most stunning and complicated episodes of the show’s history. perfect from start to finish.
highlights: the pilot, smile, thin ice, oxygen, extremis, the pyramid at the end of the world, the lie of the land, world enough and time, the doctor falls, twice upon a time
- season 7
an absolutely perfect season, one which manages to brilliantly start off the 3rd doctor’s era with a set of highly philosophical stories which all manage to take a different angle to 3’s exile. gave us one of the best companions with liz, who is always there to provide for a check and balance on the doctor, in some respect grounding him further. each story provides for a different account of the institutions and interests surrounding the doctor, who is put firmly on the back foot and has to navigate incredibly complicated systems to get some kind of justice. inventive, highly interesting, and brilliantly mature.
highlights: everything
- series 9
perhaps the best ever exploration of the doctor/companion relationship. each story has a new take on the doctor’s relationship with clara, with deeply philosophical and stunning stories which show them go to extremes to save each other, culminating in an absolute masterpiece of a finale (face the raven - husbands of river song), which is the best that doctor who has ever been. the two-parter format of most of the stories provide for an unusually large amount of breathing room, allowing for rich worlds to be created in every story, combined with some stunning direction, providing for a perfect series of television.
highlights: the magician’s apprentice / the witch’s familiar, under the lake / before the flood, the zygon invasion / the zygon inversion, sleep no more (yes, it is a masterpiece), face the raven / heaven sent / hell bent / husbands of river song
- series 8
series 8 portrays a doctor who doesn’t know who he is anymore. every episode examines a different part of his character, deconstructing the character fully. it analyses the core hypocrisies of the doctor, and creates an incredibly interesting relationship between the doctor and clara.
highlights: deep breath, listen, time heist, mummy on the orient express, flatline, dark water / death in heaven, last christmas
- season 11
an incredible coda to the 3rd doctor’s era as a whole. sarah jane heralds the return of a trend of strong and independent companions started with liz shaw in s7, and every story analyses different parts of the 3rd doctor’s era, to effectively round it off. absolutely stunning, absolutely brilliant.
highlights: the time warrior, invasion of the dinosaurs, the monster of peladon
honourable mentions: series 7, series 4, series 13, series 6, series 5
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You are probably one of the only people I have ever heard say this! If you feel like it, I’d be genuinely curious to hear what about it works for you? Unfortunately, I find myself bored to tears by it, but it would be interesting to see it from the perspective of someone who loves it
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in sleep no more, the drive for efficiency at the cost of humanity has been driven to its extreme, with work driven to its maximum, sacrificing leisure & even the very concept of sleep in order to maximise productivity, in order to keep everything running as efficiently as possible.
it is one of the most terrifying allegories in doctor who history, because of how viscerally it feels like the world we know. we get glimpses of a dystopian society, but one which forces us to reflect on ourselves. “brutes” are a very real representation of class division, being a horrifying concept; humans bred for manual labour, unable to ascend beyond what was deemed as their function; subtly but persuasively arguing against the idea of social class as inherently unjust. the sandmen are the literal representation of work being prioritised above all else.
it also has the most inventive usage of the found-footage format of any story in any medium i can think of, making it realistically fit in the world while providing opportunities for highly inventive cinematography.
it’s not perfect, but it does so much right that i feel comfortable calling it a masterpiece. definitively in my top 30 stories
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I struggle to choose any whole seasons simply because there are ups and downs in all of them. But if I have to choose, I’d go for Season 2, Season 7 and Season 26 from the classic and then Series 4 and possibly Flux from the modern.
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You’ve made me want to rewatch Sleep No More which is a very big achievement, thank you!
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The best three seasons are clearly:
- Season 1
- Season 1
- Season 1
/j
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I think Season 7 (1970) is probably the best overall. Flux is easily my favorite of the revival.
Many others are great too; special shoutouts to s25 & s26 of the Classic show, and s1 & s12 of the revival.
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Season 12, Season 24, Season 25, Series 1, Series 4 and Series 5 
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Season 7, Series 1, Series 4, all of Capaldi Who, Flux
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